Musings 44

Oh! Look off every object beside, and look wholly and only to the love, the everlasting, eternal, and unchangeable love of God towards you, which encircles you (and if I may so express it), in the arms of which you will be sustained in eternity.                    Letters of Samuel Eyles Pierce

The sacred writings of Holy Scripture (I Cor 16:22) tell us that if anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed (eternally damned). That text of Scripture does not tell us that if anyone does not obey what God says some of the time, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone is not moral, then let that person be accursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone does not attend church, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that if anyone does not believe or hold to a certain creed, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures also do not tell us that if anyone is not committed to evangelism, then let that person be cursed. The Scriptures do not tell us that as long as a person is a minister or a member of a church, then that person is okay. But the Scriptures do tell us that if anyone does not love the Lord, then let him be accursed.

If we take the words of Scripture in a relatively literal way, then we know that we can only have one master at a time and only one supreme love at a time. Our supreme love is what we think about the most and dwell on the most. Of course we must be clear that the command to love God with our whole being and the command to love Christ cannot mean that we have the ability to love Him from our own flesh, but instead we must know that God alone can give us love for Himself and He will only do this by grace. I John 4:7-8 is so very clear on this matter that the only people who love are those who are born of God and know God. This “knowing” of God does not mean that we must know about Him, but that He must dwell in us and communicate His nature to us.

The encouragement of Pierce (from the quote above) is quite consistent with the Great Commandments. We should encourage others and ourselves to look off of the things of the world and all other things as well in order to fix our eyes (eyes of the soul) upon Christ in whom the love of God shines forth. Seek the Lord for true humility that you would be able to see beyond your self-love and pride and behold the glory of the free-grace of God shining in your soul giving you love for Himself because of who He is rather than what we have done to obtain it. Think of the glory of the eternal covenant in which the eternal and triune God covenanted within Himself to take a people and love them for all eternity. Think of the love of the Father for the Son and yet His sending the Beloved Son to suffer and die for those whom He would set His love on. Think of the love of the Son who would look upon poor helpless sinners and go to the cross and suffer the wrath of His Beloved Father in order that He might remove the wrath of God from those sinners so that the love of God may dwell in them.

This eternal and unchanging love of God has taken away His own wrath at the cross so that His love for Himself would dwell in His people and share with them the life of His love for Himself. Look to Christ and behold the love of the Father and the Son and know that this is for sinners and no one else. This great and holy love encircles and encompasses sinners and not the self-righteous. This great and holy love encircles and encompasses sinners and not the proud and those with a self-made religion. This great and holy love takes those who deserve nothing but hell and wrath and wraps those everlasting arms around them and makes them objects of love. This great and holy love takes those who are vile and helpless in sin and makes them holy in His sight and gives them grace to live by.

This great love which is from eternity and cannot change will then encircle and encompass those who have Christ for all eternity future. This love is so great because it comes from such a great God who shares His love for Himself with His people who are nothing but imperfection in themselves, but He sets His love upon them and cleanses them, unites Himself to them and they become the temple of the living God. The world has nothing to offer a person that is beholding the eternal love of God and knows that it comes to his or her soul by grace alone. The world is nothing but pseudo-glitter, but Christ is the real thing. Behold the love of God in Christ as He took human flesh. Behold the love of God in Christ as He lived on this earth. Behold the love of God in Christ as He went to the cross to suffer and die. Behold the love of God in Christ as He was resurrected never to die again but to be the Mediator for His people. Behold the love of God in His beloved children as everything that happens to them comes from His hand of love in order to make them more like His Beloved Son. What else is there? Let us bow to Him and ask Him to give us fervent desires to adore and love the Beloved Son.

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